Tainted Leaks: Disinformation and Phishing With a Russian Nexus (May 25, 2017), “describes an extensive Russia-linked phishing and disinformation campaign. It provides evidence of how documents stolen from a prominent journalist and critic of Russia was tampered with and then “leaked” to achieve specific propaganda aims. We name this technique “tainted leaks.” The report illustrates how the twin strategies of phishing and tainted leaks are sometimes used in combination to infiltrate civil society targets, and to seed mistrust and disinformation. It also illustrates how domestic considerations, specifically concerns about regime security, can motivate espionage operations, particularly those targeting civil society.” This Citizen Law report “uncovers a major disinformation and cyber espionage campaign with hundreds of targets in government, industry, military and civil society. Those targets include a large list of high profile individuals from at least 39 countries (including members of 28 governments), as well as the United Nations and NATO. Although there are many government, military, and industry targets, our report provides further evidence of the often-overlooked targeting of civil society in cyber espionage campaigns. Civil society — including journalists, academics, opposition figures, and activists — comprise the second largest group (21%) of targets, after government.” — Joe

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